Newsletter of the Pinellas Talking Book Library
Friends of the Pinellas Talking Book Library
Present John Carassas,
Office of the Attorney General
June 21, 2004 from 9:30-11:30 am
Guest Speaker Deputy Attorney General John Carassas will discuss the following topics:
Medicare Prescription Drug Alert: Con artists may take advantage of seniors looking to purchase the new Medicare-approved prescription drug discount card. The Medicare Reform Act, passed in December, established a prescription drug benefit for eligible seniors that begins with the discount card.
Seniors v. Crime: Attorney General Crist opened a Storefront operation in St. Petersburg as part of the hugely successful Seniors vs. Crime project, the third Storefront in the Tampa Bay area and the 13th in Florida. The Storefront operations serve as a type of "one-stop shopping" facility for elders who believe they have been victimized by fraud or some other crime.
Phone Rate Hike: In 2003, the Legislature authorized the telephone companies to ask for the rate increase for local telephone service, but only if they show an offsetting decrease in long-distance costs.
Administrator, Pinellas
Public Library Cooperative,
Mary A. Brown
Head Librarian, Talking Book Library, Marilyn Stevenson
Editor, Harriet Thompkins
VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
April 19th to the 23rd, we celebrated National Volunteer Week. The Talking Book Library is lucky to have 23 volunteers who come in and help out our staff with various tasks, including shelving, sorting, and rewinding books. Amanda Bugel, a high school junior at Calvary Christian High School, has been with us for 4 months and does a little bit of everything. She hopes to study math or accounting in college and has a special interest in civil rights issues. Her reading recommendation is “Black Like Me” by John Howard Griffin (RCO17498).
NEW STAFF
Shannon Spencer joined us in late February as our part-time office assistant, replacing Dy Broussard. Shannon will start library school at the University of South Florida this fall, and she is very happy to be at the Talking Book Library.
SUMMER READING FUN
This summer, try a book written by a Floridian (native or not).
Marjorie Rawlings, ‘The Yearling’: (RC033466) Pulitzer Prize. This classic story tells of the Baxter family, who make a precarious living on a backwoods farm in northern Florida, and of their son Jody who tames an orphaned fawn. When the deer begins to eat the family corn, Jody is ordered to shoot him. For grades 5-8 and older readers.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, ‘The Everglades: River of Grass’: (RC047215) Fiftieth-anniversary edition of the 1947 history and folklore of a North American region that had been viewed as a swampy "wasteland." This volume includes two new chapters, describing efforts to restore and preserve this valuable source of wildlife and water.
Zora Neale Hurston, ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’: (RC035745) This classic novel tells the story of Janie, a handsome black woman, and her three marriages: to middle-aged Logan Killicks, a prosperous farmer; to Joe Starks, a go-getter who makes Janie Mrs. Mayor Starks of Eatonville, Florida; and to Tea Cake Woods, who teaches Janie, at forty, the reality of love.
Ernest Hemingway, ‘The Old Man and the Sea’: (RC053792; Spanish Language: RC012785) An old Cuban fisherman hooks a giant marlin after 85 days without a single catch. He then fights a losing battle with sharks, who deprive him of his triumph.
Wallace Stevens, ‘Collected Poems: (RC009504) A volume of imaginative rhymes with an individuality that won the Pulitzer Prize for the poet in 1955.
Carl Hiaasen, ‘Stormy Weather’: (RC041190) Bestseller. As a hurricane races through Florida, unusual people react in peculiar ways. Honeymooning Max Lamb videotapes the storm and is kidnapped by a reclusive ex-governor called Skink. Two hustlers attempt an insurance scam, and Max's new wife hunts for him with help from a millionaire skull juggler.
Robert Olen Butler, ‘A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories’ (RC036356) Bestseller. A Vietnam War translator, Butler remains close to a community of Vietnamese immigrants. They are the subject of fifteen short stories in which characters narrate tales set in their adopted and native lands. In the title story, an old man prepares his family for his death and imagines himself talking to Ho Chi Minh. By the author of "The Alleys of Eden."
You
may reach us Monday—Friday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(727)
441-9958
(727)
441-3168 TDD
(727)
441-9068 FAX
Pinellas Talking Book
1330 Cleveland
Street
Clearwater, FL 33755-5103
FREE MATTER FOR THE BLIND OR HANDICAPPED